Statistical Baseball Books (The Book, BP and THT annuals)

[TerraceReserved]

I just finished reading Baseball Between the Numbers, and really enjoyed it. By now, from reading some stuff on the web and that book, I have a pretty basic understading of most of the simpler concepts of sabermetrics. My question is this: should I buy and read The Book? I've heard good things about it, but it looks like they tackle pretty much the same stuff as BBBTN. I'm sure some on here have read it, so advice would be appreciated. Also, are there any other statistical books out there that you would recomend to read? Edit: I also have not read Moneyball. Is that a good read?

[brettac1]

Get the Baseball Prospectus annual. If you read their site and like what you read, you'll most certainly like the book. The Hardball Times annual is also really good, and their website is the best on the web for stat dorks like myself. They are really on the cutting edge when it comes to new stats and new ways to look at things.

 

Moneyball is a good read, definitely. But at it's heart, it's a hagiography of Billy Beane. That said, it's thoroughly entertaining. You're not going to find a lot of stuff regarding actual statistical analysis, moreso just the day-to-day of the A's circa the early 2000's.

[logan82]

Is the BP annual more than just player projectiona? If so what else is in it?

[patrickgpe]

it does include some articles, team recaps / projections, and player summaries.

[rluzinski]

"Curve Ball" and "The Book" are excellent reads. The Book is especially nice, since they include nice recaps of each "find", in case the analysis gets a bit heavy for the reader. Also, "The Numbers Game: Baseball's Lifelong Fascination with Statistics" shows just how long people have been studying baseball.

[brettac1]

Oh yeah, "The Numbers Game" is excellent.

 

In regards to the BP annual - there are quite a few articles, a lengthy recap of what happened to each team, and why, and what BP thinks the future looks like for them. Plus, the paragraph or so about each player below their projection is awesome. Several times I have laughed out loud reading them.

[TerraceReserved]

Still not sure if I'll read The Book or not, but I'm definitely gonna buy either one or both of the two annuals mentioned. From what I've read about the two, THT looks to be a little more what I'd be interested in, although the projections look nice also in BP.

 

brettac, if I was to buy only one of those annuals, do you have one that you would recomend over the other?

[logan82]

The Book looks like it is almost exclusivley about in game strategy and Baseball Between the Numbers has a couple chapters about strategy, but is more of a general look at some common misconceptions about stats and why some commonly used stats are a bad indicator of how good or bad a player is.

[rluzinski]

BP's projections are worthless to me, since they don't divulge the methodology behind them. Of course, I don't play fantasy baseball but even if I did, I would be just as confident in the several different freely available projections (marcels and ZiPS comes to mind). The THT is the annual I get.

[logan82]

If you are not interested in projections what reason is there to get any of the annuals? I am not really interested in projections since if they are discussed here somebody usually posts them and I am pretty content with looking at the average of the most recent 3 years, in most cases, to get a good feel for a player's offensive worth.

[rluzinski]

The THT annuals has nice statistical studies and other things.

[JET15]

BP has some really funny sarcastic player profiles. The humor element almost makes it worth it. I find some of the stats lacking in the book. The website is much nicer for that.

 

Oh, and they have good manager stats like, Blown Quality Saves (BQS). Gee, I wonder how Ned did with that one? http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

[sbrylski]

BP has some really funny sarcastic player profiles. The humor element almost makes it worth it.

I'll have to disagree. The player profiles were almost annoying to me - I want objective analysis, not sarcasm. The overall information is generally lacking as well.

[JET15]

Well, if you don't appreciate the humor, sure. I don't know... sometimes we may all take this game too seriously. I mean, look me

[TerraceReserved]

To anyone who cares, The Hardball Times Annual comes out tomorow. After reading the description I'm pretty excited to get my hands on a copy. Link below describes whats in the book.

 

http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/its-the-2008-hardball-times-baseball-annual/

[TooLiveBrew]

The woman got me Baseball Between the Nubers, published by Baseball Prospectus in 2006 (& what TerraceReserved read that inspired the OP). I haven't started it yet, but I can already see what brettac is saying about the humor -- some of the chapter titles had me laughing out loud:

 

"What if Rickey Henderson had Pete Incaviglia's legs?"

"When is one run worth more than two?"

"Why doesn't Billy Beane's [crap] work in the playoffs"

 

 

So, yeah... I can't wait to dig into this puppy.

[logan82]

The woman got me Baseball Between the Nubers, published by Baseball Prospectus in 2006 (& what TerraceReserved read that inspired the OP).

I think you will like the book, but will find most of it to be more of a review of what you read on BF.net.

[TooLiveBrew]

That's ok... I should learn to better understand the stuff I already 'know', and the style/humor should be fun.